Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-05-03
JOAQUIN MILLER.
HE WRITES FROM WALLA WALLA,
WASHINGTON TERRITORY.


;,rauties OF the Scenery of That Land.
Nothing Like 1t Anywhere but in Per-
sis-some Plain Facts and Figures That
Are of Interest to Every One.
Especial Correspondence
WALLA WALLA, w. T., April IL.
You can read the exclamation of the French
explorers in this name-an exclamation of
wonder and delight as they looked down from
the snowy circle of mountains that shuts in
this valley of orchards, meadows and wind
ing little rivers. And that exclamation still
bursts from the lips Of men as they first be-
hold this sweet dimple in the face of mother
earth, Walla Walla!
/ have seen in Persia places much like this
here, but nowhere else on earth. Even the
Vale of Cashmere-all marsh and willows at
one end now by the way-does not approach
this Walla Walla valley in dignity and re-
pose and awful splendors of environment.
Turn any way you will, north, south, east,
west, a wall of mighty mountains is before
you-peaks Of snow, mighty gute posts to this
earthly paradise.
But I must come down 70 detail and
simple facts, and give some account Of the
quality and the price of land, the markets
and the climate. Land is cheap here. This
spot is many hundred miles from the Pacific
ocean; many thousand from the Atlantic sea
board, SO that the markets of Europe are be-
yond its reach. The result is this loamy,
black soil is cheap because the market for
wheat Is too far away. And then these people
are still a pastoral people. They hate to pillow.
True, the richest of this land has been subdued
to the plow, but there is little persistence in
its use. When field shows the faintest sign
of falling off in its prolific yield of wheat it is
gladly permitted to relapse into fallow and
pasture.
These people are natural tenders of fiocks.
The traders have built up city here;
theatres, churches, academies-all this kind
OF things, the same as in Chicago or
Boston, but still the cowboy nature domin-
mates outside of the pretty city, and men sit
their horses like centaurs and despise those
who get down to touch the plow, or any thing
else, as q rule.
This was. the first part of the far north
west to he settled by civilized man. More
than forty years ago the deplorable Whit
man massacre, in which the white Protestant
missionaries were wiped out by the Indians,
occurred near this spot. And from the first
the beauty, the fertility, the sublime sur
roundings, and then the awful tragedy-all
these things have made this a sort Of center,
a battle ground between the Indian and the
white man. A large and rich reservation,
prosperous and happy, lies close to this city,
and only few miles over the line, in Ore
gon. And now let me filter this one ugly
fact down into the public heart of these great
and equitable United States 1t is this At
every congressional election a tremendous eff
fort is made to elect men pledged to the COW
ardly crime of turning those Indians out of
their rich reservations Keep this ugly truth III
your minds, . my people. And when you
hear it proposed to purchase this reservation
Of the Indians, or, indeed, almost any other
YOU can be certain it is in the interest OF
robbers.
These Indians here-the Neg Perces, whom
Chief Joseph once led in that brilliant series
of battles while attempting to escape into
Canada--are a healthy, handsome and brave
people. iney are honest, moral, deeply re-
ligious, and viii in few years be all honor to
the land if only let alone.
This and the surrounding region for many
a hundred mile is the native land of the sDot-
ted horse. l have seen in this valley as many
5000 spotted horses in single band.
In one of our Indian wars the soldiers were
ordered to destroy the property of the beaten
and flying savages. This property consisted
mostly of horses-those beautiful and saga
rious spotted horses that at that time filed
all these fertile valleys. The cavalry drove
the many bands of spotted horses all together
against the steep and stony banks of the
Columbia and the soldiers were set TO work
TO shoot them down. 1t was tedious task
for there were many thoussn of these poor
horses. record with pleasure that the sol
diers seemed to do their work with reluctance
At last the horses seemed to understand.
Here and there they stood out singly facing
death, falling IN their tracks very quietly.
But after this shooting had been going on
n do ha1
desperate. There was still more than q
Thousand of them left. They threw their
heads in the air, circed round and round and
uttered such wild and unearthly cries as no
man will ever hear again. All at once, and
in a body, they wheeled and plunged head
'ong over the perpendicular banks of the
Columbia river, and were lost to view i'm the !
gathering night and the foaming river that |
dashed against the crags below. There was
not one of this splendid band of spotted horses |
left alive.
And why are the horses spotted herel |
Look at the spotted mountains OF snow that |
encircle us here, and then go and read the story |
of Jacob and his spotted sticks and the cattle |
troughs in your family Bible.
Some years ago when l wrote about the |
chinook winds the small wits made great |
sport. And this is nearly always So. The |
wise thing for a correspondent 20 do is to see !
nothing that is not familiar to the small fry |
If / were a wise worker in |
my trade l should let all these now things
alone; so and write about the Yellowstone
park, stick to Yosemite and the Sierras:
let the spotted horse, the chinook winds and |
al such remarkable things alone till the small
wits get their small heads saturated with
hem first.
But since I wrote a magazine sketch of
,hese strange winds scientists have had the
natter in hand, and they bold that the winds
llow in from the Japan seas, instead OF blow
nS up the Colorado from the hot sands of
Arizona, as once believed. But be that as
{ may, the chinook wind is the one thing that
makes all this vast northwest habitable.
These winds come suddenly; and when they
trike You you want 10 sit right down and
est. It is like the breath of spring. Ant
hey never come except on the coolest day.
They strike the high headlands first The
,"own hills are swept of snow in a singl,